Coatlicue Tattoo Meaning

Life and death, the earth mother, and the ground that devours what it creates.

Coatlicue is the earth mother who both creates and devours — the Aztec goddess of the serpent skirt whose body is the earth itself, bringing forth all life and taking back all death, depicted as both beautiful and terrifying because she is the whole of the earth's power. To carry Coatlicue is to carry life and death, the earth mother, and the ground that devours what it creates — the serpent-skirted mother of the sun god, the complete earth whose fertility is inseparable from decay, the wholeness that holds the beautiful and the terrible as one.

In Aztec religion, Coatlicue is the great earth mother in her most awesome form: Coatlicue — she of the serpent skirt — is the earth mother and mother of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec sun god; her body is the earth, which creates all life and devours all death, which is why she is depicted as both beautiful and terrifying. Her name means 'serpent skirt,' and she is depicted wearing a skirt of writhing serpents and a necklace of human hearts, hands, and skulls — a figure of overwhelming, fearsome power. She is the mother of the gods, including Huitzilopochtli, the sun and war god, and she is the earth itself given form.

As the earth, Coatlicue is the source of all life — the ground from which everything grows and is born — and also the devourer of all death, for everything that dies returns to the earth and is taken back into her. She both brings forth life and consumes the dead; she creates and she destroys, gives birth and takes back, because she is the earth, which does both. This is why she is depicted as both beautiful and terrifying: she is the whole of the earth's power, the life-giving and the death-devouring together, and so her image holds both beauty and horror. The Aztec Coatlicue is thus she of the serpent skirt — the earth mother whose body creates all life and devours all death, beautiful and terrifying at once. Coatlicue — she of the serpent skirt — is the Aztec earth mother whose body creates all life and devours all death, depicted as both beautiful and terrifying. The Aztec Coatlicue is she of the serpent skirt — Coatlicue, she of the serpent skirt, is the earth mother and mother of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec sun god, her body the earth which creates all life and devours all death, which is why she is depicted as both beautiful and terrifying; her name meaning 'serpent skirt,' depicted wearing a skirt of writhing serpents and a necklace of human hearts, hands, and skulls, a figure of overwhelming fearsome power, the mother of the gods (including Huitzilopochtli the sun and war god) and the earth itself given form — as the earth the source of all life (the ground from which everything grows and is born) and also the devourer of all death (everything that dies returning to the earth and taken back into her), both bringing forth life and consuming the dead, creating and destroying, because she is the earth which does both, depicted as both beautiful and terrifying because she is the whole of the earth's power.

The Coatlicue statue discovered in Mexico City in 1790 (now in the National Museum of Anthropology) is one of the most powerful sculptures in pre-Columbian art — and one of the most disturbing. She stands nearly three meters tall. Her head has been decapitated and replaced by two facing serpent heads whose blood flows form a single serpent face. She wears a necklace of human hands, hearts, and a skull pendant. Her skirt is made of writhing serpents. Her hands and feet are clawed. Her breasts are flaccid — she has nursed the world. The statue was buried shortly after its discovery because it was considered too disturbing for public display. It was reburied several times and finally placed in the museum. The earth that gives life and takes it back is here rendered in stone with complete honesty.

Coatlicue across cultures

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